Tajikistan blames censorship on complaints by citizens

In
the last year, CPJ has documented
a disturbing trend of attacks against the press in Tajikistan: the frequent
blocking orders that the State Communications Agency has issued to local
Internet service providers. Delivered in most instances via text message, the
orders urge the ISPs to block nationwide access to local and international news
websites that criticize President Emomali Rahmon and his authoritarian
policies, and publicize issues like widespread government corruption and rising
unemployment.

Last
year alone, the orders were issued at least three times against several news
websites and included sites like Facebook and YouTube. The head of the country's
Internet Service Providers Association said publicly
that the agency sent a text message to local ISPs, ordering them to block
sites. In most instances, the orders were given by Beg Zuhurov, head of the
State Communications Agency, local news reports said.

Most
of the time, Tajik authorities deny their involvementand cite technical problems beyond their control. But in a rare
November statement
and, most recently, on Wednesday, Zuhurov and his colleagues at the agency
identified another source of attacks. Facebook, Zuhurov said in November, was a
"hotbed of slander" and had been blocked at the request of what he called a
group of "concerned citizens." This was not a slip of the tongue--his deputy,
Rafikjon Shokirov, mentioned the same group during his statement to the press
on Wednesday.

Shokirov
spoke at a press conference about the domestic growth of the Internet, Radio
Ozodi reported.
He spoke of progress--Internet users in the country had increased to 3.7 million,
reports said.
But, while speaking about the numbers, the official inadvertently touched upon
a dangerous subject.

Why
was the agency blocking news websites, who gave the orders, and who was this
group of unhappy citizens?, journalists asked him at the press conference.

Shokirov
gave a vague
reply--civil code prohibits publishing defamatory information, he said, and
did not offer further details. He denied that the agency had sent any blocking
orders to Internet service providers via text message. And when it came to the
identity of the "concerned citizens," he didn't offer further specifics beyond
saying, "They are ordinary people, like you and I. They call the Communications
Agency and ask us not to allow publishing libelous and defamatory materials," according
to Radio
Ozodi.

But
local media experts believe the group of "concerned citizens" is nothing less
than a group of state agents who are tasked specifically with monitoring the
Internet and flagging any content they believe to be critical of the president
or government officials.

In
other words, authorities in Tajikistan are rushing to join the regional club of
Internet
censors.

This
explanation fits events in recent
history: International websites of the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, RIA Novosti, and the Russian Lenta,
and local websites Asia Plus, TojNews, and Ozodagon, were all blocked domestically after reporting on
government corruption, rising unemployment, the deepening energy crisis, and the
state's crackdown on religious groups.

But
no one appeared to be defamed by these reports. These reports were merely
critical commentary on the state of affairs in Tajikistan.

Muzaffar Suleymanov, research associate for CPJ's Europe and Central Asia Program, has a master’s degree in international peace studies from the U.N. University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica.